


Matter Under Mind

by AmyNChan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, I'm so proud of my son, I've been working on this for too long, Mind Control, Some of these people only show up once?, all of them are important, but it can also be read as intensely platonic, defense, many platonic relationships, more of a "we respect each other and she makes me want to be better", romance is pretty much non existant, then sure, this is also way to freaking long. XD, this is my son, we'll go for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 08:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8973220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyNChan/pseuds/AmyNChan
Summary: Annoyed with how often he falls under akuma influence, Adrien seeks a method to keep himself from falling under into grasp.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has no beta, but I hope you enjoy anyways! *^_^*

“Chat, move!”

His Lady’s call was heard, but he could not comply.  Not quickly enough, at least.  His reaction time was far too slow to avoid the beam that completely engulfed him.

He thought about times in the past where this exact scenario had happened.  The overpowering waft from Princess Fragrance that had stuck him in a blurry haze for a few hours.  The spine-jolting and instant control from the Puppeteer that had left holes in his memory and the threat of a cold when he had discovered himself drenched beside the Seine that evening.  The sharp pain in his back from Dissanteur, leaving his entire afternoon a mystery that was ended by his Lady throwing him onto the akuma, Cataclysm in hand.

One would think that after so many times, he might get used to or accept the feeling of having his mind and will stolen from him to be bent to another.

That person would be dead wrong.

Chat gnashed his teeth together, hoping the sensation of grinding his teeth would help him keep a semblance of his sanity.  If he couldn’t, then he would be forced to fight his Lady again.

The thought of coming to blows with her—even while he himself was not aware of it—dropped an uneasy pit in his stomach.  Three times this had happened already.  He would not let it be a fourth.

He _wouldn’t_.

He hissed between his teeth.

“You stupid little—OBEY ME!”

The second beam came.

“Chat!”

The second beam hit.

And he felt himself fall under for the fourth time.

* * *

 

“Master Fu, are you sure this is helping?”

Adrien sat in a very familiar room, sitting across from an equally familiar elderly man.  Master Fu only came up to Adrien’s waist in height and required his cane to walk properly.  He had brown eyes that seemed to alternate between twinkling in mischief, gleaming in knowledge, or sparkling in his teachings.  Right then they were doing what the young man had dubbed the ‘cryptic glance of I know something I want you to learn but won’t tell you’ thing.

“What do you think?”

“I think you think it’s helping me?” tried Adrien.  Fu’s lips pulled into a slight frown.  Wrong answer, then.

“I think you want me to think it’s helping me?” tried the young man again.  The frown remained.

“Do you have to go through this every time, kid?”

“Plagg!”

“What?  It’s true!”

Adrien turned his gaze from the man before him to the two small creatures sitting on the table between them. One, a black creature with a catlike tail and whiskers, lay draped across a generous slice of camembert cheese with a frown on his face and narrowed green eyes.  The other, a green being with a shell on his back and a singular antenna on his head, sat politely before a cup of tea with a patient yet slightly scolding expression.

“Honestly, I thought my kitten would catch on after the first month or so, but it’s been three months since I brought him over here and he _still_ doesn’t listen,” the black creature—a kwami named Plagg—complained.

“You ought not be so harsh on him,” the green kwami named Wayzz returned.  “You know his environment.  Show some patience.”

Plagg’s only response was to grumble a bit further and dig into the cheese he had been so viciously—note: lazily—protecting.  Adrien frowned as he watched his friend, somehow understanding Plagg’s impatience.  He was impatient, too.  And yet…

“You’re troubled, Chat Noir.”

Adrien’s eyes flickered back to Fu’s.  The frown had remained on his face, but it was softer now and somehow filled with concern.  Adrien breathed, trying somehow to regain the patience that was now quickly eluding him.

“Plagg’s right, Master Fu,” began Adrien.

“I know,” interrupted Plagg.  Neither human acknowledged him, but that was fine since he had his precious camembert to keep him company.

“About what?” asked Fu instead.

“I don’t feel as though I’ve learned anything,” he confessed.  “Three months ago, Plagg brought me here because he felt I was ready for training that would help me be a better Chat Noir, but I don’t know if I’m actually improving or not.  Just the other day I was influenced by an akuma and was forced to fight Ladybug again.”

Master Fu kept silent, but Adrien noticed a small upwards curve on his lips.  Something he said was what the elderly man was looking for, but Adrien wasn’t sure what exactly that was.

He glanced down at his hands.  The hands he swore to use to never fight Ladybug again, but had betrayed that idea without his consent.  The hands he wanted to use to protect his city, not to terrorize it at the beckoning of another’s befuddled will.  He closed those fists and opened them again, just to tell himself that he was in control for the moment.  It was a control he wanted to fight to keep.

“I’ve been Chat Noir for almost a year and a half now and the best parts are where I’m fighting by my Lady’s side and the worst are where I’m pitted against her.  She says we’re partners and I believe that one hundred percent, but I want to be a partner she can rely on even better than right now.  I want to be able to throw off those who would use me against her.  She’s always believed in me and I in her, and now I want to believe in myself and make myself a better partner, you know?”

Silence reigned in the small room for a while.  Adrien kept his eyes on his hands, uncertain of what expression he might find on Master Fu’s face.

“An admirable goal,” stated Master Fu at last.  “Do you think what we’ve accomplished here will help you achieve it?”

An answer rose and parted Adrien’s lips before he could think about it, but something stopped him.

_“You stupid little—OBEY!”_

_“Chat!”_

Two beams.

Princess Fragrance had needed one blast.

The Puppeteer had only needed one shot.

Dissanteur had only needed one arrow.

This last villain had needed two beams.  Was it because his control was weaker?  No, he had been using the same type on everyone else with obvious effectiveness.  Was it because of something he did?  What did he do?

He had grit his teeth.

He had focused on a sensation.

Just like Fu had told him in that session last month.  He had tethered an instant connection between his body and mind.  It had been flimsy at best and hastily done, but it was something he had learned with Fu and applied on the battlefield.

And it had worked for a moment.

He’d had his wits for a moment.  He’d been still.  Looking back, he knew he couldn’t have moved, but he had gone from instantly falling under the attack to resisting and becoming neutral for a moment.  Not exactly an asset to the team, but not quite the liability he had become later.

How had he not noticed that sliver of progress?

Adrien grinned.  He wasn’t where he wanted to be, not by a long shot, but at least now he had an image of how far he had come.  He wasn’t that easy to take down anymore.  He wasn’t just a one hit takeout anymore.  And with more practice, maybe they could make it even harder on Hawkmoth.

Finally turning his gaze to Master Fu, he let out a Chat-like grin.  “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good,” said the master as he stood.  “I’m going to put on some more tea.  Please begin your breathing exercises, young man.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

Duck, left, right, WATCH OUT!

“Seems like this guy has mal for- _tune_ -a!” Chat called as he evaded another beam.  Ladybug gave a huff, but could make no comment.  The akuma was alternating between attacking him and then attacking his Lady, which did not leave her much time, if any, to plan.

So that meant a diversion.  Diversions were his specialty.

“You should probably take _note_ of your surroundings!” announced Chat as he began to break away from Ladybug.  The akuma, a frustrated piano teacher who had recently been fired, turned on him with a menacing scowl.  “Yikes, that’s a _treble_ ing look if I ever saw one!”

Chat ducked around the beam, carefully taking note of his opponent’s movements.  They were sharp and jagged, nothing like how a pianist should move when at his craft.

Great, he was doing his job.

“Sit _still!_ ” cried the villain as he shot another beam towards Chat.  The cat evaded once more.

“Sorry, that isn’t my _forte_!” called Chat.  “But that’s no reason to get _keyed_ up!”

The akumatized victim practically roared in frustration, sending off several beams in Chat’s direction.  He made it through the barrage unscathed, jumping to a nearby building with a grin.  “Looks like you need to _tune in_ on your accuracy!”

The victim rushed forward, obviously not trusting the aim of his ranged attack to take the cat down.  Chat nimbly leapt from one building to the next, trying to keep the man on his toes.

“Chat!” yelled his partner from the left.  He turned his attention to see Ladybug holding a spotted spring and indicating a nearby wall.  There were no more civilians in the vicinity, so he knew what she wanted him to do.  For the first time during the whole fight, he unfurled his fist.

“Cataclysm!” he shouted, slapping his power against the wall.  He could feel a rush of negative energy leave him, pushing itself into the wall and leaving it weak.  He almost pulled away when he felt a jarring hit on his back that pulled him under.

The wall had fallen.

* * *

 

“Did you see Chat Noir on Tuesday?”

Of all the things he had expected to be greeted with when he came to school, that was definitely low on the list.  Adrien turned to Nino and Alya, who were both hunched over her phone.  Nino looked impressed, Alya shocked.  Adrien felt confused.

“Nooo?” questioned the young man.  “I heard that he got mind controlled again, though…”

“Yeah, but you have to see this!” Alya insisted.  She tapped a bit on her phone and then gestured the stair right next to her.  Adrien took that as his social cue to have a seat.  The moment he was settled, he could see that they were watching the stream of Tuesday’s fight, a little earlier in the battle than he expected.

Alya hit play and her voice was heard over the action, providing faithful commentary.

“…bug just cast her Lucky Charm!  We can’t see it from here—what’s she shouting a—CHAT NOIR, LOOK OUT!”

Adrien knew that he hadn’t been hit, but the combination of his Lady’s and Alya’s worry and the tremor of the camera made the entire thing seem that much more stressful.  But Adrien knew Chat hadn’t been hit.  That would have been the end of the line.

And then a beam hit Chat’s boot.

“CHAT!”

His Lady’s yell had been unmistakable, even though she had been several buildings away.  Alya, for her part, had not turned to capture Ladybug’s expression.  Adrien was a little glad for that.

“Chat’s been hit!  What’s going to happen now?  Is he going to throw a piano at Ladybug?  Try to steal her miracu—what is he doing?”

“… _tune in_ on your accuracy!”

The line was faint, but it was also so unmistakably Chat Noir that he heard the recording of Alya gasp.

Alya of the present paused the video, then looked to Adrien.  The young boy, for his part, felt a little stupefied.  He had managed to resist mind control.  And keep moving afterwards.

He was making even more progress.

“ _Obviously_ I think that Chat’s becoming resistant to Hawkmoth’s powers,” Alya speculated.  “He gets hit the most often, so it would make sense that he’s probably building up a resistance to it.  Kind of like how no one’s been known to be akumatized on two separate occasions.”

“Maybe he’s been actively working on it?” Nino guessed, chiming in his two cent’s worth.  “Guys’ gotta be sick of being mind controlled all the time.”

“Yeah, but how would he know how to work on it?” Alya asked.  “It’s not like they’ve got some sort of mentor to teach them these things.”

“Who says they don’t?” asked Nino.

“They’ve been on their own since day one, Nino.  I was there, remember?” returned Alya.  Nino raised his hands in surrender.  Alya turned back to her phone.  “But maybe his emotional state is helping his resistance?  Chat’s always so sad after he has to fight Ladybug…”

“I don’t blame him,” said Nino.  “It’s so obvious he loves her.  I’d die if I were being forced to hurt you.”

“Aw, babe,” grinned Alya, giving her boyfriend a weak shove.  As the two laughed off their little moment and kept hypothesizing, Adrien couldn’t help but replay that moment over and over again.

He’d taken a mind-control hit and been unaffected.  He’d practically shrugged it off.  All because he’d kept his fist closed.

He was improving.

* * *

 

“Something’s got you in a good mood tonight.”

Chat grinned as Ladybug stood beside him.  Tonight, their perch was the Louviere.  A little tricky, but they managed to stay atop the triangular surface.

“Every night I get to spend with you is _purr_ fect to me, My Lady,” returned Chat.  Ladybug only shook her head with a smile.  It was nice when they got a time to relax, just the two of them.  Ladybug was often more lenient on his puns during quiet moments like this where they had nothing to do and nowhere to be.  The mere thought of it made him smile.

“Chat, do you remember The Pianist?” asked Ladybug.  She sounded curious and Chat couldn’t blame her.

“Most of it, right until I Cataclysmed the wall,” answered he.  Ladybug looked as though something had been cleared up for her as understanding brightened her features.  He decided to elaborate.  “I didn’t actually know I’d been hit until one of my friends showed me the video later.”

“So you know you got hit before the wall, then?”

“Now I do.”

Silence settled like a comfortable blanket between them.  He knew she was thinking about something—probably how he couldn’t be mind controlled as easily as he used to (he wasn’t going to lie, the thought made him absolutely giddy)—and he knew he was simply enjoying the open air and the pleasant company.  Okay, so maybe he was still reveling in how much he had accomplished, but he also knew he had a bit of a way to go.

“Master Fu said you’d been doing some extra training, but he never told me what it was for,” admitted Ladybug.  “I thought you’ve been working on your baton skills or something.”

“My Lady wounds me,” gasped Chat, a grin on his face.  “That she would try to unveil my su _purr_ ise like that!”

“Surprise?” asked she, finally turning to him.  “You were trying to surprise me?”

“A little, yeah,” replied the boy.  “I don’t like being forced to fight you and I know you don’t actually like hitting me and throwing me halfway across Paris, so I figured that if I could find some way to fend off the mind control akumas, we’d have less of that.”

“And that’s why you want to do this?”

“Do I need another reason?”

Chat grinned to his partner.  In his mind, he didn’t need another reason.  This would help their partnership, if he could pull this off right.  They’d spend less time fighting each other and could probably take down akumas faster.  If they took down akumas faster, they might get more quiet moments like this.

That was probably his selfish motive.  More time with Ladybug to just _be_.

Ladybug, for her part, gave a gentle hum.

* * *

 

“You’ve seen how making an intentional and physical connection between your mind and body can be effective against mind control, but you’ve also seen the inconveniences such a technique poses,” stated Master Fu.  Adrien nodded.  The past akuma—Crystalize—had done the same as The Pianist.  This one had waited until Chat called Cataclysm and hurried to snare him before he had used it.

It was for this reason that he and Fu were speaking of other ways to keep mind control being ineffective.

“There are two techniques to avoid mind control,” continued Master Fu.  “The first method is to create a temporary strong bond between your mind and body.  The second method is to create a barrier within your mind.”

“A barrier?” inquired Adrien.  “That sounds a lot more stable than the first method.  Why didn’t we try that first?”

It wasn’t that he was impatient, but that he knew the downsides of what he knew.  How could a mental barrier be any less effective than a bond he had to cut himself in order to call on Cataclysm?

“Because the way you learn is through hard sciences.  Physics is your favorite subject, no?” asked Master Fu.  Adrien nodded.  He loved all the sciences and was pretty good in history and maths, too.  “And while you enjoy art, you’d rather work with numbers and facts, no?”

It was true.  Arts and language were not his strong subjects unless he was learning the rules and grammar structures of another language.  Those were rules he could follow and it made learning them much easier.  Fencing and piano, too, were activities that thrived on a set of rules.  His excellence in both came from his ability to follow instructions to a T.

“A barrier in your mind is something abstract that requires you to act on faith and experiment.  There are no rules except for protection, and the only assistance I can offer you is how I have built mine,” Master Fu explained.  “Barriers of the mind are difficult to construct and can be difficult to maintain for a while.  Eventually, such barriers will become second nature; yet until that time comes, you may want to use the physical bond that you’ve grown accustomed to in order to protect yourself and Ladybug.”

Adrien nodded his head.  Physical bonds were easier to build and easier to break.  Mental barriers were difficult to build and took a long time to become stable, but would be a constant protection in the future.

“So if the mental barriers are the bike, the physical bonds are the training wheels,” said Adrien.  Master Fu smiled.  He had gotten it right.  The young boy was eager to get started.

* * *

 

“You know…”

_Dodge._

“…it seems to me…”

_Jump._

“…that Hawkmoth…”

_Duck._

“…has a favorite type…”

_Swing._

“…of akuma.”

Chat swung his baton at the legs of his adversaries, causing the mindless civilians to trip over their feet and fall onto the ground.  Chat winced, but could not stop, not when there was still a villain to defeat.

“He only has three types!” Ladybug returned, fighting her own batallion.

“Oh?”

“Army akumas, trap akumas, or stealth akumas,” said Ladybug as a civilian managed to jump onto her back.  Before Chat could do anything, the love of his life hefted the civilian off her back and threw them into another civilian, knocking them both back.  Ladybug and Chat Noir both winced on their behalf, but Ladybug continued her explanation.  “Most akumas try and build an army somehow, some akumas just trap their enemies, and then we have The Invisible One, who was the only stealth akuma Hawkmoth’s ever sent out.”

“And most of the akumas we’ve faced are army akumas,” Chat noted.  Ladybug gave a grunt of approval as another civilian launched themselves at the duo.  “Do these guys ever stop?”

“No,” the akuma said lazily from overhead.  They shot another beam off into the distance and the duo could hear another round of screams and mindless groans. “Like I said, this is my own personal zombie apocalypse!”

Chat grimaced as he was assaulted by yet another mindless civilian.  He was sick of hurting them, even though he knew his Lady’s power was strong enough to subvert even death.  That knowledge didn’t make his actions seem any less horrible in his eyes.

“My Lady,” he hissed.  “Any ideas yet?”

“Working on it!” she responded.  “These civilians aren’t giving me much of a chance to think, much less call my Lucky Charm.”

Chat nodded.  They needed to so something to contain the endless zombies.  Or at least buy them enough distance so his Lady could think.

Another civilian launched themselves at Chat, teeth gnashing.  Surprised, the cat pushed him away and he landed several feet away on the ground.

The ground.

The _ground_.

There were catacombs beneath the ground!

Maybe they didn’t need to contain the civilians, but gain enough distance to let his Lady do her thinking.

“Ladybug, get ready to drop!” he announced before he called forth his power.  He threw up the mental barrier he had attempted construct with Master Fu while he did his work.

Master Fu’s barrier was a maze in his mind with Wayzz at his side.  As Fu was always fond of puzzles, he explained that it was the best for him and that he rotated through mazes at least twice a month.  More, if necessary.

Chat Noir had tried that, but with a subject he loved.  He tried to surround himself with gravitational facts and chemical compounds in his mind, rigging his mind with traps.  He slammed his palm into the ground beneath his Lady’s feet, preparing himself to jump after her when he felt a beam hit his back.

He could not remember the rest of the fight.

* * *

 

“Adrien, man, are you all right?  You haven’t been yourself since this morning.”

Adrien turned to his best friend, who had a concerned look on his face.  Even he could see that through his massive headache.

“I’m fine, Nino.  Just a headache is all,” Adrien explained, a smile on his face.  He never wanted to make his friends worry, but the fact that he had people who cared about him enough to notice when he wasn’t feeling well did make him feel warm inside.

“Why didn’t you say so?” asked Nino as he dug into his backpack.  Curious, Adrien waited until he fished out a small pill bottle from the smallest pocket.  “My mom makes me carry some doliprane around just in case.  We used to think the headaches I got were from playing my music too loud, but even after I turned it down I kept getting them.  Now I just have these in case the headaches get too bad.”

“I didn’t know you got headaches,” marveled Adrien.  Nino shrugged with an easygoing smile.

“You’re not allergic to any medication, are you?”

Adrien shook his head.  Bad move.  He put his hand on his head to somehow quell the instant pounding.  “Just the feathers.”

“Okay,” said Nino as he dropped one capsule into his hand.  He passed it over to his friend who looked at him quizzically.   “Take that and the headache should be gone pretty soon.  Wouldn’t want to miss the last half of the school day, would you, dude?”

Adrien opened his mouth, unsure what to say.  Was this okay?  Wasn’t he supposed to go to the nurse?  No, the nurse would probably keep him with her for another period, and next was Madame Mendeleev’s class.  He didn’t want to miss that.  And his headache _was_ really awful…

Would over the counter medication even help with a magically induced headache?

Adrien figured it couldn’t hurt to try.  He accepted the pill and swallowed it back with some water.  He gave Nino a smile.

“Thanks, Nino.”

“No problem, my dude.”

What had he done to get an awesome friend like him?

* * *

 

“So now you’re trying a new technique?” asked Ladybug as the two went about their patrol.  Sometimes they went their separate ways, but Chat liked it when they didn’t.  He liked talking with his Lady while they watched over their city together.  “Isn’t that a bit risky?”

“It’s riskier to stick with the first method,” explained Chat.  “With the first one, I don’t have any protection when I call on Cataclysm.”

“Good point,” said Ladybug.  “So what’s this new method?  Do you know how it works yet?”

“I’m still learning, Bugaboo.”

Chat tried not to let his frustration show in how he wasn’t picking this up as quickly as he wanted to.  It was hard, not having something physical to use in order to practice.  And he had absolutely no clue what he was shooting for, only the words “mental barrier”.  The physics and chemistry booby trap thing had not helped him one bit, and he didn’t like mazes enough to put one in his mind and trust it.

He breathed in deeply, ran ahead of Ladybug, and flung himself over the expanse of two buildings.

“Woooooo!”

His cry was cut short when he touched down on a building, but it had served its purpose.  The frustrations that had been quickly mounting were pretty much dissolved and the fun of his last jump was already improving his mood.  He turned to grin at Ladybug.

“I’ll get it down eventually, though, Buginette,” grinned Chat Noir as his partner jumped over the buildings like a sane superhero instead of a rambunctious four-year-old.  The comparison only made him grin further.  “I promise.”

“I know you will,” smiled Ladybug.  “Also, my name is ‘Ladybug’, not ‘Buginette’.”

Chat laughed at such a typical response.  Ladybug was smiling, too, so she meant no harm by her response.

What had he done to get such an awesome partner like her?

* * *

 

Another day, another failed attempt.  This time, Chat Noir had tried to imagine his father’s security system around his mind.  There was no denying that the system was efficient in keeping everything out, but the barrier it created in his mind was flimsier than paper.  It had cracked horrendously and prompted another headache.  Nathalie had been the one to give him the pain reliever in the morning so he could go to school.

He was simply grateful she and Gorilla had both agreed not to tell his father as long as he was honest about his health.  He was glad to know they cared about him.

For now, Adrien was gathering his materials off his desk and putting them into his backpack, where a gluttonous Plagg lay sleeping with his remnants of Camembert cheese.  Adrien knew the attempts had been taxing on him, too, so he could understand the desire for sleep.

Adrien finished placing his belongings in his bag and hefted it over his shoulder.  It was time for lunch and he was grateful Nathalie had allowed him to start carrying a sack lunch whenever Father was away.  Eating with Nino had been far more fun than eating at such a large table alone.

A tap on his shoulder interrupted the boy’s thoughts, and he turned to see Alya and Marinette standing there.  The former carried herself with the confidence he had come to associate with her, fiery eyes behind sturdy glasses and a smile that seemed friendly and challenging all at once.  The latter was standing straight up with her hands gripping tightly onto her backpack.  While this nervousness was customary in the black haired girl, so was the smile she wore, an equally nervous expression that still managed to radiate friendliness.

“Hey, Adrien,” greeted Alya.  “Marinette and I were wondering if you and Nino wanted to come over to her house for lunch.  Her dad texted her during class and said he made a bit extra, so we figured we ought to treat our guys to some Dupain-Cheng dining.”

“ _Alya!_ ” hissed Marinette.  Adrien could tell the girl was embarrassed, but by what?  Maybe it wasn’t her idea?

“That…”

“That sounds awesome, my dudes!” intervened Nino, clapping Adrien on the back.  “Count us in!”

“Only if Marinette’s okay with it,” protested Adrien.  He really didn’t like how uncomfortable she seemed with the whole thing.  It was _her house_ being offered to her classmates, after all.  Shouldn’t she have a say?

“I—err…  Quiche dad made—I mean, um, yes?” stammered Marinette.  Adrien watched as she looked to Alya, who only shrugged with that gleaming expression again.

“So, you’re okay with us coming over, Marinette?” asked Adrien.  The girl nodded her head so fast he almost thought it was going to fly off.  While her movements were jerky, there was no faking the smile that was on her face.  Adrien smiled.  Marinette was okay with it.  “Okay then, sure.  We’d love to come over.”

Alya gave off a celebratory whoop and Marinette exhaled with a smile on her face.  Now that he noticed, her hands had been trembling around her backpack.  Was asking him and Nino to lunch really that scary?

“Let’s go, then,” said Marinette as she abruptly turned towards the door.  The rest of them scrambled after her, Alya and Nino grinning as she took the lead and Adrien feeling confused, but happy.  “Dad made enough quiche for all of us and he didn’t want it to get cold.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had your dad’s quiche,” said Nino as he and Alya walked on one side of Marinette.  Adrien tagged along on the other side. “Is it any good?”

“Sure is,” chimed Alya.  “I’ve had it, obviously Marinette’s had it…  what about you, Adrien?  You’ve never had it before, right?”

“Actually, I had some while Marinette and I were training for the tournament a while back,” admitted Adrien.  Memories of that day made him smile because he had actually been able to play a round of video games like a normal kid with a normal friend for a normal goal.  It had been a lot of fun.  “Monsieur Dupain’s quiche was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever tried.”

“That’s good,” said Marinette while she stared ahead.  Her face was red and Adrien was a little worried that she had a sunburn, but she kept going with a smile on her face.  “Papa likes it when people like his food. Especially friends.”

Friends.

Adrien watched as Alya pounced on Marinette, drowning the girl in her famous Alya hug and Marinette being powerless to stop it.  Nino laughed at the girls’ interaction jovially and Adrien smiled.

Friends.  He was really happy he had them.

What had he done to get Alya and Marinette as awesome friends, anyways?

* * *

 

“Argh, Plagg, this is really confusing,” complained Adrien as he sat inside his room.  He had been trying for the past three weeks to come up with a ‘mental barrier’ and everything he tried failed him.  “Why can’t I get this?”

“What do you know about mental barriers?” asked Plagg as he played with Adrien’s foosball set.

“Master Fu’s is a maze,” responded Adrien.

“And…?”

“And physics, Father’s security system, the school, and even the rooftops of Paris don’t help me.”

“No, Master Fu has something else in his mental barrier.”

“Something else?”

“Aah, all of this teaching is making me hungry.”

“Plagg!  You haven’t taught me anything!”

“I think I need to go to sleep now.”

“Plagg!”

“Good night.”

Adrien groaned at his completely unhelpful kwami.  Was he just trying to be obstinate or was he trying to be cryptic?  Adrien fell backwards onto his bed with a groan.

No.  Cryptic meant you had answers you weren’t going to just tell someone because the other person had to learn it for themselves.  Plagg was just being Plagg.  What else could Master Fu have in his barrier?

He had his maze.  He had a field.  And he had himself, and he had Wayzz, but that was it.

That was all kind of oddly specific.

Like he could see it.

Adrien sat up.  Master Fu could probably see his own mental barrier.  Adrien had always tried to imagine his.  What if he tried to actually see it?  He knew Master Fu did some meditation, maybe that helped?

Adrien moved to the center of his bed and sat up straight.  He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.  This probably wasn’t quite what Master Fu did, but he decided he was going to give this his best shot.

‘A mental barrier…  I need to picture a mental barrier…’

Adrien never noticed Plagg come to sit on his shoulder, mimicking his charge’s position.

‘I need to see my mental barrier…’

Suddenly, there was a shift, and the final thing he was aware of before blackness was an annoying and familiar “Finally.”

* * *

 

Adrien struggled to make sense of his surroundings, but they were, in themselves, nonsensical.  School was to his left, home to his right, the Eiffel Tower was beneath him, the Louvere to the sky, and the Parisian rooftops lay right in front of him.  He turned around to find broken bottles of chemicals and a bowling ball.

“What…?”

“Yeah, not your brightest idea, kid.”

Adrien turned to look at his shoulder and saw Plagg sitting there, looking somehow bored and impressed at the same time.  Plagg was observing everything around them with lazy eyes.  “Though I guess you didn’t do half-bad.  It took the last one three years before he even thought he could _see_ his mental barrier.  To be honest, I thought you’d think of putting living people here next.”

“I can do that?” asked Adrien, feeling a little dumbstruck.

Plagg looked at him.  Then at everything else in the vicinity.  Then back at his charge.  He huffed and Adrien was unsure if it were out of exasperation or amusement.  “You’re something else, kid.”

Before Adrien could retort, Plagg moved away from his charge, moving in a circle.  Adrien trailed him closely.

“Okay, first thing with this,” said Plagg.  “Everything confining has got to go.  Anything that traps you isn’t gonna keep your mind safe.  That’s not how this thing works.”

“Confining?” asked Adrien.  “Anything that doesn’t let me be free?”

“Yup.  Keep up with the program, kid.  What’s confining?” asked Plagg.  Bewildered, Adrien looked at everything again.  His dad’s security system kept things out, sure, but it always felt like it was meant to keep him in.  The house vanished.

“Good,” said Plagg before Adrien could ask what had just happened.  “Next?”

Adrien wondered again at everything.  The rooftops were the most liberating expanse there.  He’d gotten stuck in the Louvere and Eiffel Tower before, but those were fine.  And sometimes school kept him from being where he needed to be.  The school vanished.

“What?”

“Okay, next, we have to get rid of places that are too small.  If you keep your mind trapped in one area, the barrier fails more quickly.”

“Huh?”

“Old Man Fu said he changes his maze twice a month, remember?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s because if you can’t change your barrier, it’s easier for people to get inside after a long time.  Like keeping your password the same on your computer.  By the way, LadyNoir isn’t that great a password.”

“Hey!” yelled Adrien, embarrassed.  How did Plagg even know that?  The kwami chuckled in mischief as Adrien turned to the remaining places.  Broken chemicals and bowling balls weren’t exactly a ‘place’, so they could leave.  The objects vanished.

Adrien turned to the Eiffel Tower and the Lourvre.  Both were amazing in their own right, but both were also part of a bigger whole that he loved so much more.  The two vanished in favor of the Parisian night time rooftops.

With only one place left, the scenery expanded to take up his entire vision.  Buildings stretched out for miles, with the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the distance and the moon hanging high in the sky.  The crisp air filled his nose and lungs and the boy felt absolutely free.  Like he was flying and falling all at once and he loved every second of it. Adrien grinned.

“This is really cool,” he admitted.  Then stopped.  “But… didn’t I already try this?”

“Yeah, you tried it alone,” said Plagg.  “The more people you have on your side, the stronger it is.  So with me here, it’ll be even stronger.”

“So… what you’re saying is that with each person here, the barrier gets stronger?” asked Adrien.

“Basically.”

“Do they have to be physically in my headspace for it to work?”

“Kid, even _we_ aren’t physically in your headspace.  We’re honestly just sitting down on your bed like a couple of statues.”

Adrien tried to imagine it.  He knew he could sit still for hours on end because of his photoshoots, but Plagg was another story.  It was weird to see catlike creature that still when he wasn’t sleeping.  Heck, even when he _was_ sleeping he was somehow moving. Seeing him still while awake and attentive at the same time was downright unnatural.

“Sounds creepy.”

“It is creepy,” agreed the kwami.  “And before you ask, no, the people don’t have to be physically or mentally here.  They just have to be in your thoughts and it makes the barrier stronger.”

“Is there a limit on how many people I should have here?”

“No, but the more you care about them the better the barrier is.  For example, it’s a lot better to have one true friend in your barrier than the entire world filled with strangers.”

Adrien nodded.  He could understand that much, at least.  It was obvious even in the anime he watched.  The more friends you had, the more willing you were to call on them for help or strength and the harder you were willing to fight.

Thank you, Yu-Gi-Oh.

“So, basically my friends, right?” asked Adrien, a couple ideas already floating through his mind.

“You got it, dude,” said a voice from behind.  The blonde boy turned around to see Nino standing there, on top of a building, in the middle of Paris, at night.  It looked so weirdly out of place for him, but the friendly grin on his face didn’t.  “You remember that question you kept asking yourself all week?”

“Wh-what question?”

“You should know the one, _Chaton_ ,” another voice encouraged from the side.  Adrien turned to see Ladybug— _Ladybug!!_ —smiling at him.  She looked more in-place on the rooftops of Paris than Nino did, but her smile was no more or less friendly than his.  “About him, about me.”

“And about us, too, Adrien,” yet another voice called from his other side.  When he spun to see who had talked, he found Alya and Marinette standing on the rooftop with him, the former confident as ever and the latter more relaxed than he had seen her since the day of the Gamer.  They both regarded him warmly when Marinette opened her mouth to speak.

“You asked yourself how you got such awesome friends,” said Marinette in a clear tone.  It was the same tone he had heard her use when she ran for class representative.  Caring and firm, somehow.  “But your friends aren’t the only ones who will support you, you know.”

“She’s right, Adrien.”  Adrien’s eyes widened.  He knew he cared about them, but he didn’t expect them to show up in here.  He turned to see the faces of Nathalie and the Gorilla, each of them giving him an affirming glance.  “We’ll help you achieve your goals however we can, just don’t tell your father.”

Gorilla nodded to show his support.  By now, Adrien realized all of this was sort of his own mental projection of the people he cared about, but he couldn’t help but feel emotional at the recognition anyways.

“Oh, mon cher…”

No.  Way.  His brain wasn’t doing this to him.

But it was.

He turned around.

She had the same blonde hair he remembered with the same evergreen eyes.  Her mouth was pulled into a kind smile that had always made him feel warm as a child.

“Maman…” he breathed.  Movement beside her caused Adrien’s eyes to flicker in that direction and he found his father standing beside her, a smile on his face and wearing his blue jacket.  Adrien blinked.  He hadn’t worn that since…

Adrien’s eyes widened in realization.  They were wearing their outfits from their last family picture.  It was a memory of a happier time.  Before she disappeared.  A time filled with love and care from not just maman, but from peré, too.  “Peré…”

“You can depend on us too, mon cher,” said maman in her soothing way.  Adrien’s eyes watered as he watched her nod encouragingly.  He turned to his father, who repeated the action.

“I will not let you fall,” stated peré in that commanding voice of his.  Adrien remembered when his peré had said that last.  It was before she had left, and it was the closest he had gotten to an ‘I love you’ from him without her prompting.  His father preferred to speak through actions than through words, and had always been more of a productive soul than a tender one.

To hear those words again, to hear that promise again…  it renewed hope within Adrien’s spirit.

Adrien smiled as he felt tears track down his eyes.  He barely noticed when Plagg left his shoulder again, but he definitely noticed the scene slip away from his vision.

“Remember…” Plagg’s voice said, even though Adrien could no longer see anything but the darkness.  “This is your barrier. It is with you whenever you call upon it.”

Realizing something quickly, Adrien rubbed his eyes and snorted, trying to get a sense of normalcy back.  “Why aren’t you ever this helpful when we’re _outside_ my headspace?”

“Heh,” chuckled Plagg as Adrien faded out of the realm.  “Too much work.”

* * *

 

“Chat!  To your right!”

“On it, My Lady!”

Blue Collar shot off another beam from his pen, harmlessly hitting the building where Chat and Ladybug had been a second previously.  Everyone else hit had been dropped under Blue Collar’s spell, forced to take orders from ‘the boss’ to try and earn a ‘promotion’.

Three guesses what had gotten under this guy’s collar.

Chat’s palms hit the next building he leapt off from, an indication that he was using the mental barrier technique.  It had been a week since his and Plagg’s impromptu journey into his mind and he had spent that time attempting to keep the barrier standing strong.  While he found it tricky at times, it was always easier when he was around someone he had incorporated into his powerful circle of protection.  Lunch with Nino felt way better, passing class with Alya and Marinette became more enjoyable, and Adrien made even more of an effort to speak with Nathalie and Gorilla.  While he had not seen his father in the past week, he did not allow himself to be deterred over it.

He had always held his circle of friends in an important place, but this last week had made them even more precious.  Somehow, relying on them, even when they weren’t aware that’s what he was doing, made the time spent with them all the more wonderful.

“Don’t ignore the boss!” screamed Blue Collar, sending another beam in Chat’s direction.  He avoided the collision and brought his head back into the battle.  His barrier was in place, but there was no need to test it yet.

“But I’d much _paw-fur_ having my head in the clouds,” returned Chat as he made another maneuver.  The akuma growled at him and sent another beam his way.  Chat dodged this one as well, ending up beside his Lady, who carried a polka dotted end table in her hands.  “Got a plan?”

“Of course,” returned Ladybug with a knowing smirk.  “The akuma’s in his wallet, but we can’t get anywhere close without him attacking.  Think you can get rid of his pen?”

“Absolutely, bugaboo!”

“Don’t call me bugaboo!”

Chat only gave a salute as he pushed away from Ladybug.  He knew his best bet was to cataclysm the pen, but it was so small that he had to make sure he got it right on the first try rather than miss and hit something else.

(Whatever anyone who saw the Dissanteur fight may say or believe, he never actually wanted to use Cataclysm on a person.  The mental images he gave himself when he thought about it were too terrifying to ever wish on an akuma victim.)

Chat watched Blue Collar as he prepared to attack.  The pen would go out, aim, fire, and then return into his large and meaty fist, sheltering it completely from view.  The cat themed superhero frowned.  That definitely put a chink in his plans.

Maybe…

That was really risky…

Chat frowned.

“Cataclysm!”

Well, there went his hiding space.

“Found you!” yelled Blue Collar.

The villain pulled his pen out.

Perfect.

Chat dodged around the first beam, moving in closer.

Blue Collar aimed again.

The beam hit Chat.

An image of Nino and Ladybug flew through his mind.

He kept going.

Blue Collar aimed and fired again.

This time, Alya and Marinette’s smiling faces encouraged him forward.

Another hit.

Nathalie and Gorilla.

Chat’s finger was a hair’s breadth away when the pen fired for the last time.

Maman and Peré were happy, keeping him moving and pushing him to do what needed to be done.

Chat’s cataclysm disintegrated the pen and he instantly rolled out of the way, allowing his Lady to take the lead once more.

Chat Noir was proud to say he was fully aware and in control of himself for the rest of the fight.  From when Ladybug used the table to trap Blue Collar against some grooves in a nearby wall to when she had taken the wallet from the man’s pocket and shredded it.  All the way to the Miraculous Ladybug and traditional fist bump, he had been completely in control of himself.

He could not wait to tell Master Fu of his progress.

* * *

 

“I hope you realize the consequences of your actions, Chat Noir.”

Adrien could only whimper a response.  The lights were shouting at him.  His mouth was dry and felt far too funny.  Even Master Fu was shouting at him.

Not really, Master Fu never raised his voice.  But the normally soft and docile tones of his voice still felt like shouting to his poor, abused ears.  His poor, abused _head_.  His poor, abused state of consciousness.

“Really, Plagg, I thought you would have warned him against using the mind barrier so many times in a row.  And on his first try, too!”

Even Wayzz sounded like he was screaming at the top of his lungs.  Adrien was glad not to be the recipient of the kwami’s anger, but more so miserable because of the pain such scolding was causing him.  The soft sound of a teacup sliding across the wooden table between them raged horribly against his battered ears.

“Drink this,” whispered Master Fu in a roar.  “It will help.”

Knowing his mentor would never intentionally give him anything that would pain him, Adrien accepted the tea with bumbling hands and slow sips.  Whatever Fu had brewed was obviously fresh and each drink steadied his hands and helped the pain in his head ebb away.

“Better?” asked Master Fu at a slightly more reasonable volume.  To Adrien’s ears, at least.

“A little,” croaked the boy, relieved that the stuffy feeling in his mouth was also fading fast.  He took another drink of the concoction.  “Why does my head hurt so much?”

“Because in the way that power is balanced between the miraculouses, the butterfly has always affected the black cat far more than the ladybug,” Master Fu explained.  “There are other power balances and imbalances as well.  The ladybug has always been more susceptible to the fox’s illusions than the black cat, yet the fox is weak towards the bee and more resilient against the peacock.  And against each other, the ladybug and black cat are evenly matched.”

Adrien could feel his head begin to throb with a slightly renewed vigor.  He took another sip of the tea in order to solve the problem, but his headache decided to persist.  Master Fu seemed sympathetic to his plight.

“The most important thing you need to know is what you’ve accomplished isn’t natural for the black cat miraculous,” Master Fu stated.  “In using what you have not trained or properly prepared with such frequency, you placed an enormous strain on your mental functions, which led to your body dealing with the shortcomings in the only way it knew how.”

Adrien mulled the words over in his mind.  And then he mulled over the consequences he had been facing before Master Fu’s miracle elixir.  Then it all clicked.

“So what you’re telling me is that I pulled a brain muscle and got a hangover?” the boy asked. 

“You pulled a brain muscle and got a hangover,” Master Fu affirmed.  Adrien looked from his mentor to the glass before him.  It made a weird amount of sense.

“Well, is there some sort of way to keep that from happening?”  asked Adrien, turning back to his mentor.  “Like how an athlete has to warm up before their workouts so they don’t hurt themselves?”

Master Fu merely shrugged.  “I would suggest improving the endurance of your mental barrier by using it as a civilian—”

“I can do that!?” interrupted Adrien, his own headache punishing him for his rudeness before Fu could get the chance to gently scold him.  A few moments of silence rang before the elderly man picked up again.

“Your resistance against an akuma attack during this time would be weak at best and the repercussions would be about as severe as the ones you’ve endured from this last misadventure, yet exercising this ability while it’s not needed would improve the strength and endurance of your ability before you entered a fight beside Ladybug,” explained Master Fu.  He stroked on his small beard wisely and Adrien wondered if he were doing the action because he was lost in thought or because he thought it looked cool.  “If you begin with thirty minutes stretches and increase the time you use it gradually, you may limit these sorts of injuries in the future.”

Adrien tentatively nodded his head up and down.  When he was sure doing so would not cause him more undue pain, his nod became more firm.

“This sort of defense won’t work against physical transformations and attacks,” Master Fu reminded him.

“And Ladybug and I will deal with that when it comes,” said Adrien in confidence.  With the pain dulling in his head, he felt well enough to shoot his mentor a Chat-like grin.  “This just gives us the opportunity to face it like we’re meant to:  together.”

Master Fu gave a hum of approval and Adrien returned to his drink.

They were ready.

**Author's Note:**

> ...ready? Ready for what??? What do you mean this is a oneshot?! Hey, HEY!! WHERE'S THE REST OF THE STORY, DANGIT!?


End file.
